"A staggering 80 percent of Central American girls and women crossing Mexico en route to the United States are raped along the way, according to directors of migrant shelters interviewed by Fusion."
Deborah Bonello (@MexicoReporter) and Erin Siegal McIntyre (@ErinSiegal) report, in text and video.
How do many of these migrant women prepare for the likelihood of being raped? They take birth control before the journey begins.
"I think almost all of the women are abused on the way north," said lawyer Elvira Gordillo, who helps trafficked migrant women who get trafficked into prostitution. She's lived and worked in Frontera Comlapa, along the Mexico-Guatemala border, for over a decade. "[These migrants] know the price to pay for getting to the United States. The price is being sexually violated." Perpetrators can be coyotes, other migrants, bandits, or even government authorities.
